Frequently Asked Questions

You’re working directly with Stephen Knight, the owner and sole operator. There are no account managers, no project coordinators, no developers overseas. Every call, every email, every line of code – that’s one person who knows your project inside and out.

Call or send a message. No intake forms, no discovery questionnaires, no proposal requests. Just describe what you need and we’ll have a real conversation about whether we’re the right fit and what it’ll take. Contact us here.

It starts with a conversation about your goals, timeline, and budget. From there you get a written scope with pricing. Once approved, we schedule the project, build it out, you review and give feedback, we refine, and we launch. Most projects go from kickoff to launch in two to six weeks depending on complexity. See our full process and pricing.

Mostly by phone and email. You’ll always have direct access – no ticket system, no support queue. If something comes up you call or email and you get a response, not an auto-reply.

That’s what the ongoing relationship is for. Most clients stay on after launch for hosting, updates, and ongoing work. Changes are billed at the standard hourly rate unless you’re on a care plan. Learn about our care and support plans.

Yes. Yellowfin is based on Long Island but works with small businesses across the United States. Most client relationships are handled entirely remotely.

The experience goes back to 1996 – across agencies, in-house development teams, and direct client work. Yellowfin Development was formally incorporated in 2013.

WordPress, primarily – but we can work on just about any platform. Hand-coded HTML, custom CMS builds, legacy sites that haven’t been touched in years – code is code. We’ve been writing it since the 1990s and we’re comfortable wherever the project takes us. For online stores, we use WooCommerce on top of WordPress. Learn more about our website design services.

It depends on the project. Some clients hand over everything, others need help with copy, structure, or sourcing images. We’ll figure out what you have and what you need during the scoping conversation.

Most projects launch within two to six weeks of kickoff. Larger or more complex sites can take longer. The biggest factor is usually how quickly you can review and provide feedback.

Every site we build is mobile-responsive. That’s not optional – it’s a baseline requirement for both user experience and search ranking.

Speed is a priority on every build. We optimize images, use caching, and choose hosting infrastructure that supports fast load times. If you’re on our premium managed hosting, the performance difference compared to shared environments is significant. Learn about our hosting plans.

Yes – completely. You own your domain, your content, and your site. Everything is yours from day one, and if you ever want to move on, we’ll make that transition as smooth as possible.

Yes. WordPress, hand-coded HTML, custom platforms, legacy builds – we’ve worked on all of it. We’ll assess what you have, tell you what it needs, and give you a number before any work starts. If it runs in a browser, we can probably help.

Primarily websites and ecommerce – but custom functionality is well within scope. Calculators, booking systems, custom post types, member areas, admin portals, custom interfaces – yes. Native mobile apps for iPhone or Android are outside our wheelhouse, but if it lives on the web, the conversation is worth having.

Yes. Logo design and brand direction are part of what we offer. For full brand identity projects – typography systems, color palettes, brand guidelines – scope and approach are worked out during the initial conversation. Get in touch to discuss your project.

Both. Sometimes the right answer is a full rebuild. Sometimes it’s a redesign on top of an existing structure. We’ll tell you which makes more sense for your situation and your budget.

Starter websites begin at $1,500. Business websites start at $2,500. Ecommerce sites start at $4,000. Every project is scoped individually – those are starting points, not fixed prices. The best way to get an accurate number is to describe what you need. See our full pricing breakdown.

Everything scoped and agreed upon in writing before work starts. No line items that appear mid-project, no surprise costs at the finish line.

Yes, for select projects. If budget is a concern, bring it up during the conversation. We’d rather work something out than lose a good project over timing. Payment plans are typically spread over 12 months.

Hourly rate is $90/hr. Larger repair projects are quoted at a flat rate based on scope. We assess before we bill – no open meters running while we figure out what’s wrong. Learn more about website repair.

Yes – As a veteran-owned business, we offer 10% off all design, development, and marketing services for verified U.S. military veterans. Just mention your service when you reach out.

No. Monthly hosting, email, and marketing services are all month-to-month. No annual contracts, no cancellation fees.

We offer two hosting tiers. Shared hosting at $35/month is reliable, managed WordPress hosting – a solid fit for most small business sites that don’t need enterprise-level infrastructure. Premium managed hosting at $100/month runs on high-performance infrastructure with superior speed, uptime, daily backups, and staging environments – recommended for ecommerce and business-critical sites. During scoping we’ll talk through which tier makes sense for your project and your traffic. See full hosting details.

Yes. Professional email at your domain is $6/month per mailbox. Includes setup and migration from other providers. Learn more about business email.

You have direct access – call or email and you get a response, not a ticket number. We monitor hosted sites and address issues as they come up.

Absolutely – hosting is not a requirement to work with us. We build and maintain sites on other platforms regularly. Not required, but we think we’re pretty good at it. See what our hosting includes.

Yes. Domain registration is $30/year, managed through our domain portal at domains.yfdev.com. Includes DNS management and configuration on your behalf when needed.

Yes. On-page SEO is included in every website build. For ongoing SEO – content strategy, link building, local search optimization, and technical audits – that’s a separate engagement. Learn about our SEO services.

It depends on your market, your competition, and your starting point. For most small businesses in local or regional markets, meaningful movement happens within three to six months of consistent effort. If someone is promising results in two weeks, they’re selling you something that won’t last.

No. Anyone who guarantees specific rankings is not being straight with you. What we guarantee is that the work is done correctly, documented, and built on current best practices.

It’s a local business listings management service. Your business information – name, address, phone (NAP), hours, and photos – gets pushed to 50+ directories including Google, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, and more, and kept accurate and consistent month to month. NAP consistency is one of the foundational signals for local search ranking, and it’s one of the highest-return things a small business can do for visibility. $99/month, no contracts. Learn more about the $99 Marketing Plan.

Yes. Stephen is Google Ads certified. Campaign setup, management, and ongoing optimization are available as a separate engagement. Learn about our marketing and ads services.

SEO builds organic search visibility over time – it takes longer but the results compound and don’t stop when you stop paying. Google Ads puts you at the top of search results immediately but stops the moment you stop spending. Most businesses benefit from both, timed strategically.

When someone asks ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overview, Perplexity, or any other AI system a question about a product or service, those systems pull answers from web content they’ve indexed and trust. If your site isn’t structured in a way that AI systems can read, cite, and understand – you don’t exist in those answers. That matters more every year as AI-assisted search becomes the default way people find information and make decisions.

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in a list of links on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). AI search visibility – sometimes called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or AISEO – focuses on being the source that AI systems cite when answering questions directly. The underlying work overlaps but the goals and content structure are different. A page optimized for AI citation needs clear entities, structured data, authoritative language, and content that directly answers specific questions – rather than content built primarily around keyword density.

Yes. It’s built into how we approach content structure, schema markup, and page architecture on every project. It’s also available as a standalone audit and optimization engagement. Get in touch to discuss.

Significantly. Schema markup, clear page structure, consistent entity information, and authoritative content are the primary signals AI systems use when deciding what to cite. A poorly structured site with thin content gets ignored. A well-structured site with specific, authoritative answers gets cited – and that’s where visibility is increasingly being won or lost.

We’re straightforward about scope. If something is outside what we do well, we’ll say so. That said, feel free to reach out anyway – we work with a network of partner agencies and professionals, and there’s a good chance we can point you in the right direction even if we’re not the right fit for a specific project. Send us a message.

Yes – the portfolio is at yfdev.com/portfolio. Case studies with more detail on specific projects are also available. View case studies.

Reach out and find out. There’s no pitch, no pressure, and no charge for the conversation. You’ll know pretty quickly whether it’s a fit – and if it’s not, we’ll let you know and try to point you somewhere that is. Get in touch.